Why Grapplers are Always Top Tier

#fgc #fightinggames #fighter

[NBSYBORG]

Coining the term "early grappler syndrome" is James Chen's greatest contribution to fighting games.

[respectfulremastersbymetal]

"They might not be broken, we might just be bad."
90% FGC problems in a nutshell.

[megatenshi]

The funniest part about this to me is that it's pretty much evidence that the grappler gameplan is working. People whose gut response is that a grappler is OP and makes them panic/rage early on is like, literally the exact feeling they prey on. Get spooked and get cooked, that's the grappler classic.

[samedwards]

People are literally already bitching about Gief doing level 2 into level 1, then instantly pogging out about Cammy doing literally the same thing lmao

[JB_CY]

Crazy how important mobility is in fgs that a character that kills you in 3-4 unlockable moves can struggle lol

[lainhikaru]

That's why KoF is more balanced in terms of grappling than any other fighting games.
It's because you don't have just the classic, big, slow type pf grappler, but a variety of grapplers who can all do different things.
A classic grappler would be Goro Daimon or Clark, needing to get close to deliver those huge damage command grabs.
But you also have Vice, which is a grappler that can move fast, combo command grabs into punch/kick combos.
Ramón, which have moves that can cause the oppobent to be confused on which direction he will move.
Shermie which is a grappler that can be focused in countering reactions and can be really good against rushers.
Kasumi/Geese/Seth which grapples as counter moves.
Even non-grapplers have command grabs.
Andy can do a vommand grab that can be chained into desperation moves.
Athena is a zoner with a command grab.
And so on.

[GHNeko]

7 mins to tell everyone "grapplers arent good. you're just bad."

i love it

[ThePiiX]

I always refered to Gief as the "Noob Killer". High damage, counter intuitive moves make a hard match for someone who doesn't play much.

[YouGuessIGuess]

The title: Why grapplers are always top tier
The video: Why grapplers are top tier...for the first month

[theanti-hypemonitor]

King is such an example. He has such amazing frames with his jabs, HUGE range in general and a million grabs and throws, even catching you mid air and such. litereally perfect.

[darienb]

Grapplers are like a big Boss fight in any other game. They're big, scary and can deal a lot of damage. But once you figure out their pattern, they fall pretty easily.

[hastat]

From the perspective of a perma casual, grapplers are very annoying if you don't know the matchup properly - their higher stats means that matches against grapplers go for longer than normal AND they punish your mistakes ultra hard from your inefficient newbie play patterns.
But as you said, we "might" just be bad lol, that's true wisdom.

[jackg]

"waiting to see who Tokido picks" I have never felt more called out in my whole life

[BigWillTheMill]

I usually main grapplers or those with gameplans that function in a similar capacity. Grapplers can be summed up in one phrase "Knowledge Check". They are "noob killers" and own early meta as everyone is still a noob. All the other points have some validity, but it really just boils down to how well the "non-grappler" knows the game. In the SF4 series, I mained Gief, and then because he had some super lopsided match ups, I learned those characters and their counters (like picking up Sim to deal with Sagat and Seth). It was VERY obvious when I was fighting someone who KNEW the game for real as opposed to someone just playing Ryu or who had watched some footage - my life became INFINITLY harder against a knowledgeable player.

[RSFArocks]

Reminds me of all the tier lists putting Potemkin as the second best character in Strive during the first open beta. It really says something about Ram that she's consistently been considered at least top 3 in basically every tier list that has ever been made since the game's first beta, though.

PS, I really appreciate the doom metal love. You have the best music taste in the entire FGC and no one can convince me otherwise.

[HighQualityIce]

I've always liked the less polar/straightforward approach to grapplers SNK took, especially outside of KOF. They tend to usually do more to compensate for a character being big, somewhat slow, and having command grabs than "oh let's just make their command grab do a shit ton of damage lol". Real Bout 2 Krauser is a really good example since he's half grappler and half zoner, and it worked out considering he's a (slightly upper) mid tier with a very even matchup spread

[TonyToon]

Makes me think of two questions:
1. Who are some grapplers that stayed top tier? Did their tech change?
2. How do you design a strong/top tier grappler who isn’t busted first months of release? Do you just assume the meta will catch up to them?

[aliasmcdoe]

This reminds me of the "T.Hawk is top tier in ST" myth that spread in the US FGC, because the character has a throw loop OS that is inescapable for most of the cast. Problem is, setting it up in a game with incredibly strong defense like ST is very hard, on top of the character being very execution intensive. So this fabled "top tier" was used effectively at high level by like 5 godlike JP players and even then they rarely got tournament wins.

[Magaso]

Here's what I think about grapplers. I've been a grappler player since Hugo in SF3 Third Strike. One of the things that you will learn as a grappler is how to effectively block (or evade, or *insert escape from oncoming attack thing here*). You need to in order to wait for the opening you need if you want to get that 360 in there. Also, not a lot of peeps wanna play characters that do all those extremely complicated combos that put your hands to work. Some of us need our hands for our jobs (I'm a magician and balloon twister) so sometimes, a slower character who has a handful of combos and one big move that takes a TON of damage is great for me (I don't wanna speak for anyone else). I also find that if I then switch to another character who's not a grappler, but just as powerful, like Abigail from SFV for example, I get to do some combos, AND dish out the damage I'm used to giving out. And all that time I learned to effectively block with my grappler has paid off. This is all my opinion though. Anyone can correct me or elaborate on this. Take it easy. Great video!

[CloudCuckooCountry]

"They might not be broken, we might just be bad." Perfect. So many games, players call for nerfs and buffs day 1 of a new meta. My dudes, have you considered it may be a skill issue?